Explore this provocative form of nonfiction comics art and mode of reportage.

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The rapid dissemination of inaccurate information and fake news across multiple communication platforms has eroded public faith in traditional media, creating a climate of skepticism with regard to such basic notions as journalistic integrity and expert testimony. In the face of these dilemmas, comics journalism has emerged as a powerful alternative mode of reportage. Practitioners in this field re-assert the ethical value of truth-telling, while at the same time foregrounding and reframing the inevitably subjective dimensions involved in any act of witnessing through the use of hand-drawn visual narrative. Without shying away from vital questions about the role of representation in the perception of reality, comics journalists are nevertheless telling stories that urgently need to be told—in an immediate and accessible way. In her talk, Prof. Kelp-Stebbins will explore this provocative form of nonfiction comics art.

Kate Kelp-Stebbins (she/her/hers) is Assistant Professor of English and Associate Director of Comics and Cartoon Studies at the University of Oregon. Her work examines comics and visual media as tools for rethinking world literature and remapping transnational media flows. Her work has been published in Feminist Media Histories, Media Fields, Studies in Comics, and anthologies including The Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies, Comics Studies Here and Now, and The Comics of Alison Bechdel. Her book, How Comics Travel: Translation, Publication, Radical Literacies, is in press with the Ohio State University Press, and uses comparative methodology to analyze world economies of comics through the apertures of translation, cultural imperialism, and print cultures. Her research and teaching practices are informed by feminist, anti-racist, and anticolonial theories. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 2014 from UC Santa Barbara.

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